Sunday Morning Service

Matthew 10:21-42 (Click title for audio access)

"And Now For The Other Side Of The Coin" • 8.8.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Last week, we covered the first 20 verses of chapter 10. Jesus gave the Apostles principles for their journey, that we could hold onto as we go out to serve Him.

- Like the Apostles, we have been given power to minister, protection and the promise of provision. But Jesus also lays out very realistic and sobering expectations.

- Beginning in verse 16, Jesus told them that their message would be rejected by some and that it would bring them to places where they would be persecuted for His name's sake.

- In the section before us, the theme comes early and often.

Text

• Matthew 10:21-23 : "Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." : The first expectation that these men were to have was that the message of Christ would bring division.

- Christ causes this type of division within the lives that these disciples would touch. Even family members would turn against those who followed Christ.

- I am sure that if you have not experienced this personally, you have heard about it.

- There are parents who have shunned their children and vice versa because of Christ. Estranged siblings carefully plan their holidays in order to avoid unpleasantries.

- A consequence of Christ's presence will be division, though that is not the intention of His coming. As a result, it's the messengers that bear the brunt of the anger.

- Notice this wonderful promise: You will be hated by all for My name's sake! Indeed the disciples had a share in being hated.

- The world hates Christ and the world hates those who represent Him. They are fine with you and I when we fit in. They don't mind you being a Christian when it means nothing to them.

- However, when it comes to properly representing Him, it means that we will be confrontive in love, regarding the true state of somebody who is not saved.

- That is when the world begins to hate you. They resent that anybody would tell them that they have sinned. They resent Christ's call upon their lives, as well as the ones that He calls through.

- Jesus promises that the one who endures to the end will be saved. What is Jesus saying? Is He telling His Apostles that they could only be saved if they faithfully endured to the end?

- He is saying that the one who endures through this type of persecution without giving in, could look forward to being delivered from it, to Christ.

- Someday, the persecution will end and salvation in it's fullest, will begin!

- At the same time, the men who faced persecution were told to flee. Don't just stand there and take it! Flee to another city. Jesus is not advocating needless martyrdom.

- It's not a spiritual trait to allow yourselves to be killed. If it's possible, if it's necessary, flee, continue to be useful, continue your mission.

- To these disciples, they were going to go through the cities of Israel, but Jesus would be right behind them coming after them.

• Matthew 10:24-26 : "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known." : The first expectation was division, the second is derision. We will be treated, in some measure, as Christ was treated. We will be treated that way because we are like Him.

- When Jesus says "It is enough," He literally means that this is the actual reward! It is sufficient to be like the Lord!

- To have someone say this is the greatest compliment that anyone could give to us! He's just like Jesus! If you have that said, it is enough!

- This should be an encouragement to us. "I prove that I'm disciple when people treat me like they treated Jesus. I am His servant if I am like Him."

- Yes, I want to be called Christlike. That sounds so attractive. But they called Him a devil!

- Jesus was called the master of the house of Beelzebub. This word traditionally had meant "Lord of the flies." The connotation is fairly uncouth: Flies hung out around the dung.

- To say Jesus was the Lord of the flies was to associate Him with dung. This was a very derisive, demeaning thing to say.

- Worse that that even, there was a deeper insult: Beelzebub had become a synonym for the devil himself! Either one of these might have been intended.

- If they said that about Him, the template, how will it be for us?

- What are they going to say about you and I? What names have you been called? What insinuations have been made? What hostility floats just beneath the surface?

- It's par for the course among those who have been called to serve.

- These things are not occasions for fear. God will bring their chatter and their hostility, usually done in secret, out in the open. He'll make it known.

• Matthew 10:27-31 : "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." : The next expectation for the Apostles, was possible death.

- Follow the thought progression here: Men will insult you for your relation to Christ.

- They will do this secretly, but God will expose them. For an Apostle, the logic might follow: "Maybe I should be more careful about what I say! Maybe I should be a bit more stealth about this!"

- Jesus says exactly the opposite. He says, "Share it all openly, in the light, for all to see and for all to hear!" That which Jesus had revealed was to be declared, despite potential persecution!

- Of all the Satanic lies, the one that is most opposite of Christ, is to hide the life that has been given to you for fear of losing it!

- Jesus goes directly against this: Don't fear those who can kill the body, but not the soul.

- The worst thing that a person can do to us on earth is to kill us. How bad could that be given the alternative!?

- The alternative is that God can destroy both body and soul! This is not teaching annihilation. God can send you body and soul into hell, where both are eternally destroyed, ruined!

- He is not threatening you with hell if you fail Him. He is laying out the proper perspective for those who live with eternity in mind.

- But understand, for these disciples especially, death is on the line. They would have to succumb to death for His sake, on His account. On our part, it may come to that someday.

- Jesus gives an interesting illustration here that was meant to give them comfort.

- Sparrows were fairly cheap at the time of Christ, literally less than pennies for two. If you bought four, one was thrown in for free!

- God is mindful of each one and not one falls to the ground in death, apart from the Lord.

- The concept here is that death is not outside of God's hand over the life of His person.

- God's concern is such that He knows the very numbers of the hairs on your head, something that is increasingly easier to tell as the years progress!

- His intimate concern for you helps you to understand that even if death were in the proverbial cards, God would be right there with you.

- Turn over to Acts 7. Stephen is about to become the first martyr of the Church. At the end of his life, he says perhaps the most insightful things that could be remembered by us.

• Acts 7:54-56 : "When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, 'Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'"

- God was right there with Stephen when he died. Stephen's last vision on earth was to see Jesus standing, ready to receive Him.

• Matthew 10:32,33 : "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." : The consequences of the ministry of the Apostles was direct and to the point.

- They were asking men and women to confess Christ before men. The consequence of that decision ran into the annals of eternity.

- I like the way that the NLT translates this verse: "If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven."

- It's a promise that no confession will go unnoticed or unrewarded.

- The confession of anyone who hears the Apostle's doctrine here means Christ's confession or acknowledgement of them there.

- Consequently, the opposite is true. Denying Christ here brings about a denial from Christ there! This does not refer to a one time denial, but a denial of Him over and over again.

- The stakes are eternity. The lives that we deal with on planet earth are effected for all time! How incredibly serious is this to you and I?

• Matthew 10:34-39 : "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.' He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." : The fourth expectation is complete self-denial.

- I guess that you and I are going to have to return our Christmas cards. He did not come to bring peace on earth!

- Jesus, in His first coming, did not come to establish His own Kingdom. He came to provide a way for His Kingdom citizens. Now, if all voluntarily submitted themselves to Christ, we'd have peace!

- Someday, when Christ returns and sets up His earthly Kingdom, there will be peace on Earth, but at this, His first coming, His person would bring a sword.

- He brings war. That is the sword metaphor. His presence in your life sets you against your closest relations. It was the same for Jesus.

- At this time in His life, His own family, Mary and her sons, all wanted to get Him out of public view. He had gone too far. They did not believe His claims at that time.

- Jesus tells the Apostles here that their loyalty, their love for Him must supercede their love and loyalty to family!

- He is not saying to love your family less. He is saying that we should love Him more!

- He who finds His life will lose it. Contextually, one who hangs onto their own reputation, their own family pressures, will find life, but will lose it all.

- On the other hand, the man that lays all of that aside, the one who does not hang onto their own reputation, who forsakes family honor, that person will find the life that Christ wants to give.

- He closes this section explaining just how deep their denial of self would run. He tells them that the one who does not take his cross and follow, would not be worthy of Him.

- We say, "Yeah, I am good with the cross! I even have one that I wear often. It's 14 carat gold and looks lovely with my broach!"

- The cross was the ultimate execution, in that it became a synonym for radical pain. Additionally, it was a demeaning, humiliating death.

- Worse than all of it, the one who was crucified was never even talked about again. You lost all identity, except for the cross.

- Our cross is not our spouse, not our job, not any disease. Our cross is a picture of accepting the repudiation of the world!

• Matthew 10:40-42 : "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.'" : Jesus has been telling these Apostles that they are to represent Him in every way.

- There are dangers that stem from men's rejections. But He closes this with a wonderful expectation. There will be some who received Christ would receive them.

- There would be those who would bless these individuals. These would receive wonderful things and nothing, not even a cup of water, would be forgotten by the Lord God!

Conclusion

- Anything we do well in life demands that we do it in full view of the consequences. Your relation to Christ may ostracize you from family and invite ridicule from your "friends."

- Your service to Him may cost you your life. It will mean death to your image and reputation.

- But if you follow, you represent Christ and to turn one life to Him, earns a greater reward than anything that you would give up! Will you follow Him?